Message from the AIA Oregon EVP/CEO

 

Heather Wilson
AIA Oregon EVP/CEO

While cleaning the AIA Oregon office / AIA Portland Center for Architecture, I had the opportunity to go through many of the chapter’s archives, which gave me a unique “history at a glance” perspective. In the process of deciding how to deal with the chapters’ sensitive materials and records, archives, and member produced materials, I decided to call the Oregon Historical Society to help discern items that could be best displayed in the state archives for state history purposes.

I’m happy to report that a great deal of material was donated. Most of the chapter archives of meetings, minutes, elections, and leadership were taken, along with other significant items that linked our chapter to architect Pietro Belluschi or to the development of planning and development materials in master planning efforts of downtown Portland. Did you know that the Whitney Young speech delivered in Portland to the AIA also started the AIA Communities by Design Committee and the AIA’s RUDAT / SDAT program? We placed some of that information in the archive as well. Your donation lives under the file number RL2021-101 for now, and is being sorted by the archivists for collections to consider. I’ll be glad to see what impact that may have.

I was, however, a bit disappointed that the historians did not want to take the archives of our design awards. Here I had found what I though was a treasure – an archive of awards jury members, member volunteer committee members, entrants, winners, event invitations and guests – neatly bound into 4 unremarkable black binders with hand-lettered call outs: “DESIGN AWARDS ARCHIVE.” These 4 (VERY HEAVY) books contain correspondence, invitations, notes, and more spanning the years 1956-1997. I have spent a great deal of time poring over these books to learn about this chapter, your architectural heritage, and what matters most as we turn ourselves toward this year’s call for entries.

First, I want to note that our awards are not just design awards, but PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT awards as well, and all will be presented on the same evening. While we are celebrating design excellence, we’ll also be celebrating the professional achievements of nominees put forward for our President’s Award, Young Architect Award, and Emerging Professional Award, so please take a look and nominate yourself or a worthy member you know. This is how we support, elevate, and promote not only each other, but the profession over time.

Next, I’ll draw your attention to the People’s Choice Awards (PCAs) going on in our sections and we are looking forward to recognizing the results that we have in by then to also celebrate our sections’ hard work. We hope to see your faces as we gather back in person for presentation.

This year, we’ll celebrate at the Portland Art Museum, a venue we used in 1965 when we combined our night with a gallery exhibition of the Northwest Printmakers 36th International Exhibition, Organized by the Seattle Art Museum for the then Portland Art Association. We held our awards entries in exhibition alongside the Printmakers and the Artists of Oregon Paintings and Sculpture of 1965. It was then the 9th annual event, so if my math is correct that makes this our 66th annual outing and I am looking forward to making a big deal out of it.

Please join in the excitement by entering your work today! The Call for Entries is open for OAAs, several PCAs and the PAAs. You can find links to all the programs here. Firms must be members to enter, and all members can enter projects as individuals. If you are unsure of your Emerging Professional / Young Architect status, please let us help you, we can do that quickly. If you have questions about entry eligibility or your firms’ membership status, please contact us so we can get you squared away ahead of the September 4 deadline for entry submission. 

Our esteemed panel of jurors featured in this weeks’ T@3 article will give you more insight into the amazing professionals that your President has invited to participate in this year’s program. You can also visit the recording our recent program, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Design Awards (But Were too Afraid to Ask)” where I take the time to give some helpful information for creating your best entries for submittal.

Best of luck, and I look forward to seeing the work we put forward to represent our state’s design excellence for 2022.

Message From the AIAO EVP/CEO

 

Heather Wilson
AIA Oregon EVP/CEO

“There are some games you can’t win unless you’re all in.” –Jordan B. Peterson

When you are good at something, but don’t really love it, you can do alright. You will get your work accomplished ok, and you’ll earn your living. Nothing out of the ordinary, probably, and so what? There’s a lot to be said for a life of coloring inside the lines. For one, your pictures are very, very pretty, and everyone will recognize exactly what’s happening in those pictures. Boxes, checked!

But what if you’re good at it AND you love it? That’s the place I assume many of you exist in architectural practice, both being great designers and really enjoying the work of collaboration, energy and visualization that it takes to craft a solution in theory to a real built thing. You maybe even like to compete a little? I know I do. This year, our Design Awards program Jury will be chaired by Suchi Reddy, AIA, founder and principal of Reddymade Architecture and Design based in New York. If you missed it, she was our closing speaker for ODC 22 and gave a powerful presentation regarding her work in neuroaesthetics. The conference theme –LINK –is clearly followed through with her agreement to serve as our jury chair, and we couldn’t be happier. If you had a chance to meet her, you know we’re in excellent hands. I can’t wait to see the selections made this year.

But you can’t win if you don’t enter (and you can’t enter if you aren’t an AIAO Firm member – see details here). I really enjoy this time of year because I get to see my members’ best, and it energizes me to keep doing my job supporting all you do. I am hoping to see more of your amazing work this year. We’ll be back in person for the awards presentation at the Portland Art Museum, and you won’t want to miss it.

You’ll also want to make sure you attend the prep session – Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Design Awards *But Were Too Afraid To Ask on August 4 where I will share basic do’s and don’ts, common jury questions and insights, and review the entry process in detail so you’re relaxed and ready to submit your entries. I can’t wait to see this year’s work. Best of luck!

Messages from the AIAO Legislative Affairs Committee

 

Chris Forney, LAC Committee Member

Using our Collective Voice

In the wake of the latest Supreme Court EPA Ruling, I would like to seize upon this moment to promote discussion, healthy debate and understanding amongst our membership and feel empowered to drive home our shared priorities. Our superpower as an organization is that we have a collective voice that is smart, informed, and structured and can be used to influence legislation. From my perspective, it is a lot more apparent how critical it is that we get better at using that superpower to influence legislation. If we don’t, others will and we may not like those outcomes.How do we do that?

  • Can we promote discussion and debate towards hammering out a shared agenda? A shared agenda can be mobilizing for membership.

  • Can we be polling our members more frequently and sharing the results? I think Architects want to know what other Architects are thinking. These results might also help us communicate shared priorities with more validity, authenticity and transparency.

  • Can we get good at deciphering permission from membership (voting) on 1-3 clear goals that we then confidently use to direct committees to execute, full steam?

I’ve long suspected that executive action through agency directive was not a durable pathway to responding to climate change (or any matter). The recent supreme court decisions are telling us that the only durable response to women’s rights, environmental and health protection and social justice is through legislation. We are being told by this Supreme Court to set clearer rules for them to judge by. So, let’s get organized and let’s get clear on the rules we want our local, State and National communities to live by.Our collective voice just became a lot more important. My hope is that we, as a community of Architects, can gather our focus amongst our membership to describe the future we want to see.

Christopher Forney | Principal
BRIGHTWORKS SUSTAINABILITY

*****

 

Cindy Robert, Rainmakers LLC (AIA Oregon Lobbyist)

State Wildfire Risk Mapping now available – a proactive measure to prevent and respond to the growing threat of wildfires.
The searchable map shows the wildfire risk of properties across the state. Anyone can plug in their address and see where their property falls on a risk spectrum. The map was made by a collaborative that included the state’s Department of Forestry, the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon State University as part of Senate Bill 762 (2021 legislative session). That bill, passed during the 2021 Legislative session, ordered state agencies to undertake a slate of measures to modernize and improve wildfire preparedness through three key strategies: creating fire-adapted communities, developing safe and effective response, and increasing the resiliency of Oregon's landscapes. The bill is the product of years of hard work by the Governor's Wildfire Council, the Legislature, and state agencies.

At its core, the wildfire risk map is a tool to help inform decision making and planning related to mitigating wildfire risk for communities throughout Oregon and making it a reality has been an immense lift. Every tax lot in Oregon is assigned a wildfire risk classification. Knowing their level of wildfire risk will assist homeowners in identifying mitigation actions that can help protect their homes and communities. For homes that fall within the WUI and are classified as high or extreme risk, there will be required mitigation actions. The Office of the State Fire Marshal is working on defensible space codes and the Building Codes Division is working on home hardening codes.